The Rush Ranch Educational Council offers docent-led programs for groups visiting the ranch, including bird and plant walks and slide shows on Rush Ranch wildflowers and ranch history tours. Docents also provide an educational program for school classes on Tuesday mornings in the spring and fall based on 3rd and 4th grade curriculum and focusing on the Native American Patwins who lived in Solano County before to the arrival of Europeans.

When Europeans arrived at what is now Pinnacles National Monument, the land was not exactly a “pristine” or “untouched” vision of nature, but rather a managed ecosystem that itself had become dependent on fires set by the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. Scientists are studying the traditional fire practices to help the ecosystem build greater resilience to major disturbances like climate change.

Greg Sarris, currently Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, grew up in Santa Rosa, left for many years, and has now resettled on Sonoma Mountain. The bluebellies were there in his childhood and are still there now, woven into the landscape and the history of Sarris's people.